Big Sioux River contamination unsurprising and unchecked

Our farm near Elkton, South Dakota had Big Sioux River tributary Medary Creek flowing through it and we thought nothing of swimming in that goo loaded with manure, DDT and atrazine. Dad would even pump water from a flooding Medary Creek into our cistern for taking baths and watering the garden. 

This morning the Big Sioux is again out of its banks contaminating everything in its path with poisonous effluent including that generated by non-point sources. Back in 2018 South Dakota State University President Barry Dunn said the chemical toilet that is my home state should simply accept that fact because of more confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Today, every body of water in eastern South Dakota is a shithole because Republican is just another name for Earth hater.

Analysis by district consultant Jack Little, a retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist, showed the 1997 flood dumped the equivalent of all sediment contributed by river flows in the prior 50 years. In the first 1,600 feet out from where the Big Sioux enters Lake Kampeska at state Highway 20, the study said nearly 4 feet of sediment was dumped by flood events between 1951 and 2000. It is more lucrative to farm to the river’s edge and easier to plow through tributaries. As long as our legislators and governor continue to condone agricultural pollution, our lakes and streams will continue to die. [Brad Johnson, Pollution carried by major floods is killing our lakes]

See why the first lines of political defense are county commissions and why environmental lawyers are important to democracy? The US Environmental Protection Agency gets involved when the process breaks down. The US Fish and Wildlife Service enforces critical habitat and Democrats care more about this stuff than the redstaters do. I'm a single-issue voter. Earth first. See how simple? 

It's about time South Dakota's press investigates the collusion between the state and polluters instead of pandering to the South Dakota Republican Party as it destroys watersheds by deconstructing the Waters of the United States rule protected under the 1972 Clean Water Act. South Dakota will flout WOTUS until the cows come home unless or until downstream states cry foul.

In the above image a farmstead crumbles near the divide between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on Buffalo Ridge over Oak Lake, part of a Brookings water supply and tributary of the Big Sioux River in extreme eastern South Dakota. 

The Mississippi is the third most polluted waterway in the United States and five of the tributaries of the Minnesota and Mississippi River system rise in South Dakota where Big Stone Lake is filling with silt.

Learn more at KELO teevee.